A disturbing video from Brazil showing a couple being abused and attacked after an alleged attempt by the two to rob passengers on a bus was foiled, is viral on WhatsApp with claims that it happened at the India Bangladesh border.
The video shows a man lying in a pool of blood as bystanders abuse the woman accompanying him. A few seconds into the footage, a man hits the woman with a wooden plank while another walks around with a machete in his hand.
The video has been doing the rounds on WhatsApp with the caption which claims, "Feel free to spread this video in India and all around the world. I have done it. This will be a noble work that you will do because this video was shot near the India Bangladesh border."
Original text in Hindi: इस वीडीओ को पूरे हिन्दूसतान और दुनिया के कोने कोने तक किसी भी जरीये से पहुचाने मे अपना हक अदा करें।। मैंने कर दिया। और आप सोच भी नही सकते जी के आप कितना बड़ा काम कर रहे हो ये वीडियो भारत बंगला देश बार्डर के पास की है ।
BOOM received the same video on its helpline number for verification.
Fact Check
BOOM could ascertain that the video is not from the India-Bangladesh border as people in the video were speaking in Portuguese.
We broke the video and performed a reverse image search on a few of its key frames. We were directed to the same clip that was tweeted in November by a Brazilian website's Twitter handle.
The video has been captioned in Portuguese as, 'Strong Scenes: Couple Get Beaten Up After Burglary Plans Foiled.' (Original text in Portuguese: Cenas fortes: casal leva peia da população após assalto frustrado)
BOOM then ran a relevant keyword search and was directed to multiple news reports, which reported about the attack on the couple.
The incident happened in October, when a couple was overpowered by passengers in a moving minibus after they tried to rob people onboard. According to reports, they were pulled out of the vehicle near the Socorro area of Sergipe, a north eastern state of Brazil moments after they announced their plans of armed robbery.
The bus was travelling from the city of Laranjeirus to Aracaju in North East Brazil.
The couple was armed with a machete and attacked the ticket collector of the vehicle, according to the article. Later, the passengers overpowered them and beat up the man who suffered a deep gash on his head. Meanwhile police reached the spot and after receiving medical care, the couple was taken to the police station.